Control Your Home in the Palm of Your Hand

Connected home devices are getting a lot of hype right now — from smart thermostats that know when you're home, to sprinklers that can adjust lawn watering schedules with the weather. Of course, with all those new techy home features, things can get tricky to keep track of. Thankfully, there are also some new products (like Revolv or SmartThings) to help you tend to your home's systems via a connected hub and a single app. The latest newcomer to the group is Wink, which launches today with Home Depot and Amazon.

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What Is It?
The Wink app and hub (which will be $50 at launch, and discounted if you buy another Wink product with it), is a spinoff of the innovation platform Quirky and will support Quirky products (like their sleek, smart air conditioner) but also many third party devices across categories (climate control, locks, garage door openers, blinds, and more). Big names like Honeywell, Philips, Leviton, Schlage and GE are already on board, and more are expected to join in the near future.

Why We're Interested
The great thing about connected hubs is that they allow you to remotely control individual products, but also set more complex programmable scenarios easily. You can quickly schedule rules for many areas of your home at once. For instance, you might have a setting for when you're coming home from work (lights on, temp down, garage door open) and another for when you're leaving for vacation (air off, lights on a timer, deadbolt engaged).

It used to be that the connected home was only for super-techy people who wanted Jetson-esque houses and had big budgets. But there are now more affordable offerings from big name outlets like Staples (the Staples Connect system recently announced expansions to its lineup), Lowes (which has the Iris system), and now Home Depot. We expect these kits to show up in more homes than ever before, and we're looking forward to trying them out in the Research Institute.

TELL US: Are you excited for these futuristic home apps?

Rachel Rothman is the Technical Director at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute.